The views of the X and Y generation school managers on the motivation and organizational citizenship behaviors of the X and Y generation teachers (Example of Malatya province)

The aim of this study is to determine the views of school principals representing the X and Y generations, which are dealt with on the basis of Multiple Generation Theory, about some of the organizational behaviors (motivation and organizational citizenship behavior), determining whether it originates from generation difference. In order to realize this aim, the phenomenological method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. In this study, firstly, the school principals were determined on the basis of Multi-Generation Theory, and then the opinions of the school principals about the organizational behavior of the teachers working in their institutions were taken. The working population of the research was composed of school principals working in Malatya province in 2019-2020 academic year. The study group of the research consisted of 12 school principals selected from all levels working in Yeşilyurt and Battalgazi district centers. In determining the study group, extreme case sampling method was used. While collecting the data of the research, a questionnaire prepared for the purpose of the study, based on the literature, determining the generation of working group, and a semi-structured interview form containing questions about the determined organizational behavior were used. As a result of the research, it has been revealed that teachers have distinct attitudes and behaviors due to their generations and they reflect this to their organizations, and in this context, it is concluded that X generation teachers exhibit more organizational citizenship behavior than Y generation teachers. In addition, it was determined that the factors that increase or decrease the motivation of teachers differ according to the generation they represent, and it is concluded that motivation of generation X increases with more concrete and material motivation sources and generation Y with more verbal appreciation or achievement documents. In addition to these results, being deemed worthless and inadequate duties within the organization negatively affected the motivation of the X generation teachers. Being passive within the organization negatively affected the motivation of the Generation Y. Based on the results obtained from the research, various suggestions were made to practitioners and researchers. Keywords: Generation X, Generation Y, Motivation, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Principal, Teacher.